Friday, October 31, 2008

Summary: Taku is you're ordinary, run of the mill otaku, who rarely goes to school, and loves playing video games. However, through one of his online chats, he learns about the mysterious New Gen incidents – a horrifying series of murders, done in very strange ways. After clicking an image of a New Gen murder, he is very surprised to, the next day, stumble across that murder as it is being commited. Somehow, Taku is related to all of the New Gen murders – but how? [In all honesty, I still don't know]

Analysis: ... This anime is second to Casshern SINS. Its very unique in several ways, and is very interesting in and of itself. Its based off of a light novel, and is told in much the same way. We see everything, know everything, hear everything, think everything, that the main character does. Its done basically in book form, and really sucks you in. There is maybe 15 seconds of non-takuness in the first three episodes. Because we only know what the main character does, its great for suspense. We're figuring out whats going on as the main character does, and not in a sudden revelation provided by the enemy or by a friend. We're with him as he slowly figures it out, being shocked the entire way, not really knowing what he's getting into. Its done very brilliantly.

Now, the minuses. A problem that I had when first watching it is that you don't realize that its being told from only the perspective of the main character. There were some things that happened that didn't make sense, such as the appearance of Seira-Tan, a character from a TV show that he constantly imagines holding conversations with him.

Other than that, the only minus is that there are only going to be 12 episodes. At the pace its going at, I don't know how much plot is going ot happen after he finds out whats going on, unless there is going to be a second season, which I honestly hope there will be.

Sono me, Dare no me?

Taku and Seira - Sorry, its a bad pic, but something went wrong with the screenshot thing.

The chat window of one of his games. He gets alot of information through these, and it is how he is sucked into the mystery.

The blessed crucifixion, one of the New Gen Events

Sorry that I havn't updated, but its been a long week. Very long. I havn't had much time for anything. I also have alot of tests coming up, so that will be annoying.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Summary: The world has been infested by Parasytes, who can take control of human bodies. They don't know why they were sent here, they don't know how they were created. What they do know is that they must kill, and feed off of the human remains. They have the ability to shape the bodies of their hosts in any way that they desire, whether to alter the body to jump 50 feet in the air, or make blades out of arms. The worst part is that noone knows of their existence, as they blend in seamlessly with society.

One of the parasytes, however, messes up. Instead of taking control of his host's brain, he gets forced into the host's right hand instead. The name of this host is Izumi, and after waking up to this horror, he and the Parasytes, called Migi [which means right in Japanese, not a very creative name] form a symbiotic relationship, in order to fight the other parasytes.

Analysis: This entire manga is a coming-of-age story, focusing on Izumi. Because he and Migi each are two people in one body, they each retain their own minds. However, Izumi is influenced by Migi's cold, harsh, logical mind. The story tracks him and those surrounding him, as he changes and he deals with the changes. That part is pretty interesting. Additionally, some of the Parasytes [such as Migi, but there are others] see the human race as an interesting experiment, and its interesting watching them interact and learn about humans.

Whats also good about it is that its hinted, both at the beginning and the end, that the Parasytes were sent to the earth in order to cleanse it of a plague, that plague being the human race, for all of the evildoings that we have been inflicting on the earth. Its a very eco-friendly manga.

However, my problem with it are the fights. The manga, even though it is set up as such [what with the body changing], cannot do fights scenes. When they're done, they're done ok-ish, however they have no read purpose in the plot. Its almost as if the mangaka said 'Allright, I think I'm going to put a fight in here for no reason at all'. I can only think of 2, maybe 2.5 fights in the series that were actually important and helped the plot and the characters along. The rest of them, I feel like the manga could have done without. [Its because of that that I gave it a low score]

The main reason that you would want to read this manga is because of the characters, and how they develop. Thats the best part of it, and probably the only part worth reading [except for the 2.5 fights that actually matter]. Asides from that, you'd read it to read the insights on humankind, the world, and society as we know it.

Characters:

Because this entire manga is basically character devlopment, I'm going to be very brief with the characters, and I'm only going to mention four of them. There are more, and they do play important parts, but I feel like if I say anything about them, it will ruin it.

Izumi Shinichi: The protagonist of the series, he starts off as an uncaring boy, with a dim view of the world. After his right hand is inhabited by Migi, he changers, becoming more and more parasyte than human.

Migi: The other protagonist of the series, he inhabits Izumi's right hand. He is very interested in human society as a whole, but only sticks his neck out for himself and Izumi. He has a very narrow view of the world, and is very smart.

Murano Satomi: She is the childhood friend of Izumi, and spends some of her time in a romantic pursuit of the titular character. However, for the most part, in the series she serves as a sort of barometer to Izumi's humanity.

Tamura Reiko: She is a full bodied Parasyte, however she is not as mindless as the rest. Maybe its the fact that she possessed a teacher, but she sees the entire world as an experiment. She looks at the world through an outside observer's eyes and shares that perspective with us. Throughout the series, we see how the views of humanity changes. She is not as violent as the rest of the Parasytes, and is more logical and contains more reason than them too.

Anyways, I wrote the last part of this semi-rushed because its almost time for holidays. I might rewrite this later. I'll put pictures up after holidays. Expect a VERY long review about Kiba in the next couple of weeks, because I'm finishing with the series in the next couple of days and I feel like I'm going to write ALOT about it [it is a very awesome series]. I'll see you all soon

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Sorry for not posting, but the weeks been very busy. I'll write my actual review either tonight/tomorrow. But, in the mean time, I thought I'd try something new.

The 2008 Fall Anime Season just started and I'm watching 3 or so new shows. So, I figured to get out what I'm watching, and to get more people interested, I'd do a first-look thing. After watching 3 episodes, I'll say what its about, and my views on it. When it finishes, I'll do a complete review.

Casshern SINS

Genre: Action, Drama, Post-Apocalyptic

Summary: Its a post-apocalyptic world, where a now extinct human race has been taken over by robotkind. However, the robots themselves are falling to the ruin, a rust that decimates their bodies, killing them with no cure.

Its all due to Casshern, but as to what he did neither we nor he know - he has a robot amnesia. All that he knows is how to fight. His prey comes from robots who approach with intent to kill, thinking that the ruin will stop and they will gain eternal life by eating him.

Analysis: This will easily become one of my favorite anime. I know that saying this is unprofessional, but this anime ... is FREAKING AWESOME. Let me go over why this is.

For one thing, the drawing style. Its not the style thats used now - its a more classic style, mixed in with some elements. It fits very well with an apocalyptic world setting, and its great for dramatic effects.

The music is blended in so well to the anime that you don't even notice it, yet it still affects your mood. Exactly how BGM [background music] should be.

The writers have made it so that we don't know exactly whats going on, yet we know enough to make it interesting. Its contrary to most other anime, where the hero is introduced to everything in the first episode. In this one, he's just wandering around, trying to make sense of what happened, and figure out what happened to his amnesia. Also, the first scene in each episode, before the opening credits, slowly show what did happen - 5 second blurbs, that we are supposed to be piecing together, backwards, as it is. Its a great way of showing what happened without actually showing it.

Because its a post-apocalyptic world, its filled with people who are on the verge of death. Here's the catch - none of them want to die [big shocker there]. Its very intense, watching their interactions, and what happens. I, for one, was crying at the end of the second episode [watch it, and see why I was doing so. You'll be crying too].

Casshern, without his helmet on.

Casshern, in Battle mode, Part 1

A more full body glimps of casshern. Those two things on his hips have another part to them, but we don't know what they do yet.

Casshern, in Battle Mode, part 2. When he is in this state, he exists only to destroy. Its rather scary.

A landscape shot of the earth. There are quite alot of these as he travels.

A full on view of the ruin.

Most of the ruined robots that try to attack Casshern look something like this.

All in All, this is a great show so far, and I can only think that its going to get better. I suggest that you all go and watch it. Right now. Why are you still reading? Go and watch it!!!

Friday, October 10, 2008

The virus has kicked the bucket, I am happy to say.However, after the virus was eliminated, my computer started crashing on startup. I had no idea why, and was getting pretty pissed. So I booted my comp in safe mode and realized that I had two anti-viruses installed. They were conflicting and ruining everything. So I uninstalled one and now my computer works. Happy days are here again!

I'll have a review up within the next week - I'm going to a go tournament over the weekend.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

I'm probably not going to be on for the next week or so - my computer has a virus. I don't know how it got on, but I'm working to get it off. Considering how just about all my anime/manga is on that computer, I can't finish some of the series I was watching/reading. I do have some things that are on an external hard drive, but i don't know if i'll be able to access them.